If you translate the phrase from its Spanish and Italian roots, ‘la pausa’ simply means ‘the pause’, which tells you a good deal about what is actually involved. The concept is a simple one, even if it goes against what your body is telling you to do in the heat of a match. Rather than rushing to play the ball the moment you receive it, you deliberately hold onto it for a beat or two longer than your opponent expects, giving your teammates the time they need to make their runs and get into dangerous positions. It is all about controlling the tempo of the game and refusing to be rushed.
The player most commonly associated with the skill is the Argentine playmaker Juan Román Riquelme, who seemed to play the game at his own pace no matter what was going on around him. The likes of Andrés Iniesta and Xavi were also masters of it during their years dictating things in the middle of the pitch for Barcelona and Spain. To carry it off, you need to receive the ball with a good first touch and then, crucially, resist the temptation to do the obvious thing straight away. Instead, you shield the ball, keep your head up and wait for the picture in front of you to develop.
The reason this is such a difficult skill to master has nothing to do with your feet and everything to do with your brain, because holding your nerve when a defender is bearing down on you is far easier said than done. There is a fine line between a beautifully judged pause and simply dithering on the ball until someone comes and takes it off you, so this is a skill that requires an excellent understanding of the game to pull off. The best way to develop it is to play as much as you can and to work on keeping your head up so you can read the movement of those around you.